Former U.S. Attorney: 'It Doesn't Get Much More Serious Than' Changing a Document to Get a FISA

Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara (Wikimedia Commons).

CNN contributor and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is shocked by the news that an FBI agent allegedly altered a document used to attain a FISA warrant to spy on former Trump adviser Carter Page back in 2016, and through him on the entire Trump campaign.

You know it’s bad when CNN is reporting this…@PreetBharara on altering a document to obtain a FISA Warrant: "really serious, it doesn’t get a lot more serious than that." pic.twitter.com/Z5QDd0dacA

“Well, that’s kind of an alarming bit of news,” Bharara told Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. “Obviously, based on what [CNN reporter] Evan is saying, there’s a lot we don’t know, but given the description he has provided… If there was an FBI agent who has sworn to uphold the Constitution, who can be proven to have altered a document in connection to a legal proceeding including the obtaining of a FISA warrant, that’s really serious. It doesn’t get much more serious than that.”

“I’d like to know the details, what the nature of the change was, if there was a mistake in some way… [but] based on the reporting it doesn’t sound like it was. I want to keep an open mind about it,” he went on to say, “but that is not a good thing. [It’s] a terrible thing.”

“Law enforcement agents and prosecutors who work with them are sworn to uphold the Constitution, sure, but [they have to] actually exceed the protections of the Constitution. They have to be of the utmost integrity, of the utmost candor, especially when making a representation to the court, which is what a FISA application is, it’s got to be on the up-and-up.”

“I know that there has been a lot of political fighting about whether or not there was proper candor, there was back and forth within the House Intelligence Committee when the positions were reversed between Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff, and that looked like a lot of politics.” “This,” Bharara was forced to admit, however, “this particular thing […] does sound serious.”

Yes, it does. And here’s my prediction: it’ll get even more serious, and heads will roll.